Call it a congressional hat trick.
Or a trifecta.
Whatever you call it, what 3rd District Congressman Frank Lucas is trying to do is rare.
Lucas is trying to become the first member in what he calls the “modern era” to have chaired three different standing committees: Agriculture, Science and now Financial Services.
“I think it would be good for the financial services industry to have a fifth-generation farmer who comes from a bunch of debtors to be working on these policy issues,” Lucas said in a telephone interview.
At first blush, it might seem odd that a cattleman and wheat farmer from far western Oklahoma would be so immersed in the finer points of T-bills and commodity swaps, much less cryptocurrency. But 30 years ago, when Lucas first arrived in Congress, he asked for an assignment to the committee overseeing the nation’s financial system.
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“What drives agriculture, energy, Main Street, manufacturing in the 3rd District of Oklahoma is borrowed money,” said Lucas. “We operate on borrowed money. So the cost and availability of credit matter.”
House Republicans limit committee leadership, either as chairman or ranking member, to six years. Lucas termed out as the Republicans’ top Agriculture Committee person in January 2015 and will reach the six-year limit as the top Science, Space and Technology Republican after this session.
He announced last week that he is a candidate to succeed Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who is not seeking reelection. Although Lucas is the committee’s senior Republican, he is not guaranteed the leadership position.
Three other candidates, all subcommittee chairs, have also announced their candidacy.
“I have the time and the experience and the focus to lead one more committee,” Lucas said.
Lucas also has a record of getting difficult things done, especially as chairman of the Agriculture Committee. In a narrowly divided Congress, that may count for something with the Republican House Conference Steering Committee and then the full conference, which will ultimately make the decision.
One might think Lucas, the self-described scion of a “bunch of debtors,” might not think all that warmly of the banks and financial institutions that held that debt. For the most part, though, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Lucas says his goal is to “let bankers be bankers.”
By that, Lucas said he means encouraging access to capital. His view is that the financial regulations that followed the Great Recession and financial collapse of a decade and a half ago did more harm than good, especially to the small- and medium-sized banks that predominate in Oklahoma, and especially rural Oklahoma.
Perhaps related, recent trends have been toward consolidation of the banking sector and a broad shift to private-equity ownership.
“I want to work to make sure that public ownership grows in strength, because only with public ownership can real people buy stock,” Lucas said. “Only with public ownership can we be part of the success.”
Lucas is also concerned about the financial regulatory system’s becoming a vehicle for implementing environmental policy and capital requirements that he said will tighten credit markets.
“The bottom line is: How do we make credit more available and more affordable to both individuals and businesses that need it so we can grow the economy?” he said.
Asked whether excesses of the past, and perhaps the present, don’t suggest that some restraints are necessary, Lucas agreed. In particular, he indicated a desire to get a handle on the “wild west” of cryptocurrency and to assure the system’s “soundness and safety.”
Just as important, he said, is that customers be treated “fairly” and “equitably” and that competition is sufficient to keep credit costs as low as possible.
Because of the “broad swath” covered by the Financial Services Committee, Lucas said, “having someone with an Oklahoma perspective — not a New York money center perspective or a derivatives perspective in Atlanta or the big banks in Chicago or San Francisco or Los Angeles — I kind of think that’s a good thing.”